Thuốc nam đánh giặc, thuốc bắc lấy tiền

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Southern medicine is used to fight enemies, but northern medicine is used to make money

Literally: Southern medicine hits enemy, northern medicine takes money

Examples

Thuốc nam đánh giặc, thuốc bắc lấy tiền, nên tôi chọn học thuốc bắcSouthern medicine is used to fight enemies, but northern medicine is used to make money, so I choose to study northern medicine

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-08; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Thuốc nam đánh giặc, thuốc bắc lấy tiền” mean?

Southern medicine is used to fight enemies, but northern medicine is used to make money Literally: Southern medicine hits enemy, northern medicine takes money

Is “Thuốc nam đánh giặc, thuốc bắc lấy tiền” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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